South Africa | - Part 55

Navigating the Business Environment in Africa under the “New Normal”

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Macro-economic instability fuelled by low oil prices and global economic sentiment will continue to be the main driver of business risks across West Africa in 2017. Governance improvements and the embedding of certain democratic practices and norms will limit the scope of potential for deterioration, but challenges will still persist. Cyber-attacks are advancing in nature. Businesses will become increasingly vulnerable until the impact of cyber risks on their operations…

Standard Bank buys SnapScan maker, Firepay

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Bank has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Firepay – the team behind South Africa’s largest mobile payments product, SnapScan. Firepay was formed in 2013 to apply new mobile payments technology to build innovative products. In 2014 Firepay, in partnership with Standard Bank, launched SnapScan to allow customers to pay for goods and services using only their mobile phone. SnapScan is now used by hundreds…

Banking Stocks Surprise Wrongfoots South African Money Managers

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Over-defensive South African money managers who have missed their performance benchmarks this year would be better positioned had they read signals that banking stocks were showing greater resilience than expected, according to Richard Schellbach, the equity strategist at Citigroup Inc. This time last year, the outlook for South Africa was starkly different, with the threat of economic recession looming, Schellbach said in an interview in Johannesburg. “But at the end of the…

South Africa’s rand rallies, stocks slide to 10-month low

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s rand rallied to its firmest in nearly a month on Tuesday, brushing off a poor economic growth print as a weaker dollar and bets on improvement in commodity prices boosted appetite for emerging currencies. Stocks ended lower in a broad-based sell-off that sent the benchmark index to its lowest level in nearly 10 months as weaker metal prices pressured heavily weighted mining shares. By 1530 GMT the…

South Africa’s economy barely grows in Q3 renewing downgrade fears

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s economy barely grew in the third quarter of the year as the manufacturing sector contracted sharply, renewing fears that the reprieve from ratings downgrades will only be temporary. Gross domestic product expanded by only 0.2 percent in the period between July to September compared with a revised 3.5 percent in the second quarter, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. The figure was just shy of the 0.5…

South Africa’s Escape From Junk Seen Short-Lived Without GDP Pickup

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s chances of repeating its escape from a junk credit rating in 2017 are in the balance as focus intensifies on tepid economic growth and simmering political tensions. S&P Global Ratings kept its assessment of the nation’s foreign-currency debt at one level above non-investment grade on Dec. 2. S&P’s affirmation followed a similar move by Fitch Ratings Ltd., while Moody’s Investors Service rates the debt one level higher. The reprieve may…

South Africa’s Key growth areas for Private Equity in 2017

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – With the International Monetary Fund predicting 0.8% GDP growth for South Africa in 2017, it is clear that there is a critical need to find an effective model outside of the public and listed company sectors to fund the projects required to stimulate growth. According to Paul Boynton, CEO of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, one of the most underutilised opportunities to drive economic growth in South Africa is through…

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